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Clinton to Resume Campaigning After Bout With Pneumonia

September 14, 2016 2:43 AM

Ken Bredemeier

Ken Schwartz

FILE - U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton arrives at the airport following a campaign Voter Registration Rally at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, United States, September 6, 2016.

Hillary Clinton plans to return to the campaign trail Thursday after abruptly leaving a 9/11 memorial event in New York City Sunday, which her campaign at first said was due to overheating but later attributed to a pneumonia diagnosis she received Friday.

A video of the incident posted online shows Clinton propping herself up on a street bollard before stumbling into a waiting van with the help of Secret Service agents and her aides.

In a statement, her campaign said Clinton will be in Greensboro, North Carolina, Thursday to "discuss her vision for an America that is stronger together."

While Clinton continued to recuperate, she got a rousing endorsement from the country's number one Democrat and her former boss -- President Barack Obama.

"I am really into electing Hillary Clinton," Obama told cheering supporters in Philadelphia Tuesday. "I have seen how smart and savvy and tough she is. I had a front row seat for four years," Obama said of his former secretary of state.

Obama mocked Republican candidate Donald Trump, saying he "is not in any way, shape or form fit to represent this county abroad and be our commander-in-chief."

He belittled Trump's praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin as "a strong leader, because he invades smaller countries, jails his opponents, controls the press and drives his economy into a long recession."

Trump fired back at Obama on Twitter, accusing the president of allowing Russia to invade Crimea.

"Russia took Crimea during the so-called Obama years," Trump said. "Who wouldn't know this and why does Obama get a free pass?"

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to the National Guard Association of the United States, Sept. 12, 2016, in Baltimore.

On his website, Trump posted a statement titled "Shouldn't you be at work?" in which he blasted Obama for neglecting his duties as president to campaign for Clinton. The Trump statement listed several "problems," including an incident over the weekend in which Iran threaten to shoot down two Navy jets flying in international airspace and a North Korea nuclear test that could be the country's most powerful ever, he thinks Obama could be solving in lieu of making campaign appearances.

Trump campaigned in the rural midwestern state of Iowa, promising to bring back jobs from other countries. He later appeared outside Philadelphia, where he unveiled details of his plans for making child care more affordable for American families and working mothers.

Trump touted the plan as a way to help working families deal with child care costs, which he said are one of the largest expenses for many families. The Trump proposal will allow families that make less than $500,000 annually to deduct child care costs from their income taxes. Trump also pledged to offer six weeks of maternity leave to working mothers whose employers don't already provide the benefit.

"The Trump reforms will allow a family to make the choice of whether a parent should work outside the home or not without bias from the tax code," Trump's campaign said in a statement. "Having employed and empowered thousands of women at every level throughout his entire career, Donald Trump understands the needs of the modern workforce."

The Trump plan received praise from at least five female members of Congress, including Rep. Cynthia Lummis, who called the proposal a "serious and balanced approach."

"Rather than empowering Washington, Mr. Trump will focus on providing regulatory reform to promote new family-based and community-based solutions, and also add incentives for employers to provide child care at the workplace," she said.

The latest polls show the race between Clinton and Trump tightening, with Clinton holding a 3- to 4-point lead.